1. "Marion Lighthouse Haunted?"
Posted by Susan on Jul-26th-02 at 3:17 AM

From Ghosts of the Massachusetts Lights by Lee Holloway

Built in 1819, just off Marion, Mass., in Buzzard's Bay, the little 29-foot Bird Island Lighthouse was recently rescued and renovated by the Bird Island Light Preservation Society.

Around 1830, a former pirate by the name of Billy Moore, was hired as keeper of Bird Island Light, and he and his wife, who had a fondness for tobacco, took up residence in the keeper's quarters.  The citizens of Marion welcomed the couple and made frequent visits to the island, always bringing a little tobacco for Mrs. Moore.  Her husband attempted to discourage this practice, alleging his wife had a "consumptive cough."

Several citizens noted that Mrs. Moore often sported black eyes and other bruises and feeling sorry for the lady, continued to supply her with tobacco.  Then, one frigid February morning in 1832, the distress flag was flying at Bird Island Lighthouse and, upon arrival, townsfolk discovered the lifeless body of Mrs. Moore.  Her husband advised she had "succumbed from nicotine."  Somehow, the wily old ex-pirate convinced the group of concerned citizens that his wife had been suffering from "contagious tuberculous" and they wasted no time digging a grave in the soft sand of the beach-the only ground around that wasn't frozen-and hastily burying the lady.

Later, people got to talking about the bruised, battered body of the lighthouse keeper's wife and the sheriff decided an investigation was in order.  By that time, though, Billy Moore had fled, never to be heard of again.

The next keeper of Bird Island Light didn't stay long.  He quit, declaring he and his family were unable to contend with the ghost of an old woman who kept knocking on the door in the middle of the night.  Subsequent keepers had similar experiences and one even claimed his children were repeatedly frightened by the spirit of a "stoop-shouldered old lady" with one arm extended as though reaching out for something.

Although the old keeper's house was demolished long ago, people still encounter Mrs. Moore's ghost in the vicinity of Bird Island.  When the harbor was frozen over in 1982, Adam Larkin and another Marion fisherman saw what Larkin described as a "disfigured and tattered looking old woman crossing the ice from Bird Island, an old corn cob pipe clenched in her jaw."  According to Larkin, they knew she wasn't real because "she seemed to float over the ice."


(Message last edited Jul-26th-02  3:19 AM.)

Thaks Susan!  What a COOL story!
I wish my 86 year old neighbor could experience this!
She loves lighthouses and knows a lot about them as her husband was in the Coast Guard.

BUT she is Taurus, she does not like new-fangled things...
She will not let me describe my adventures in computer-ing...

You're welcome, I have more haunted Massachusetts stories if you want 'em?

Do you think you could print out the page and show it to your 86 year old neighbor?  A printed page is nothing newfangled and I'm sure it wouldn't cause her any grief. 

Spooky stuff, Susan.  Thanks!